What Is Ferulic Acid?

Ferulic acid (ferulic acid) chemical name is 4 hydroxy 3 methoxycinnamic acid, is one of the derivatives of cinnamic acid (also known as cinnamic acid, 3 phenyl 2 acrylic acid, molecular structure). Ferulic acid can eliminate free radicals, promote the production of enzymes that scavenge free radicals, increase the activity of glutathione transsulfase and quinone reductase, and inhibit tyrosinase activity to regulate human physiological functions.

1. Developer: benzene-ethyl acetate-formic acid (8: 2: 0.2) TLC: silica gel GF254, color development conditions: ultraviolet light (254nm), preparation of reference solution: take ferulic acid reference, Add methanol to make a 1 mg. Ml-1 solution.

2. Silica gel G thin plate, using benzene-chloroform-glacial acetic acid (6: 1: 0.5) as the developing agent, unfold and remove. Color rendering conditions: UV light (365nm)

3. Silica gel G thin layer plate, using toluene-ethyl acetate-formic acid (5: 2: 1) as a developing agent, unfold and take out. Color rendering conditions: UV light (365nm)

4. Silica gel G thin layer plate, using chloroform-ethyl acetate-formic acid (5: 4: 0.5) as a developing agent, unfold, remove, dry, and inspect under an ultraviolet light (365nm).

5. Silica gel G thin plate, using benzene-chloroform-glacial acetic acid (6: 5: 1) as the developing agent, unfold, remove, dry, spray with the newly prepared 1%

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Method name: Acute branch syrup-Determination of ferulic acid-High performance liquid chromatography

Application: This method uses high performance liquid chromatography to determine the content of ferulic acid in acute branch syrup.

This method is applicable to the acute branch syrup of traditional Chinese medicine preparations.

Principle of the method: test the product in a water bath to near dryness, add methanol for hot reflux extraction, filter, evaporate the filtrate to dry, dissolve the residue in water, adjust the pH to 1 ~ 2 with dilute hydrochloric acid, boil, cool, transfer to a separatory funnel, and use Extract with ether, extract the ether with 2% sodium carbonate, wash the sodium carbonate extract with ethyl acetate, discard the washing solution, adjust the alkali solution to pH 1 ~ 2 with dilute hydrochloric acid, extract with ether, evaporate the ether extract and dry the residue Add methanol to dissolve, filter, and filter the filtrate into a high-performance liquid chromatography for chromatographic separation. Use an ultraviolet absorption detector to detect the absorption value of ferulic acid at a wavelength of 323nm and calculate its content.

Reagent: 1. Methanol (chromatographically pure)

2.Acetic acid

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Anti-radiation effect of ferulic acid

Organ failure caused by radiation is largely caused by chronic peroxidative damage. The damage to the body caused by radiation is divided into two types: direct damage and indirect damage. Direct damage is that radiation directly causes the breakage of some sensitive molecules in cells. Indirect damage is caused by the radiolysis of water, which causes the increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species and then the subcellular structure. As a result, antioxidants are widely used in the treatment of radiation damage. To protect cells from reactive oxygen species damage, an endogenous thiol pool must be maintained within the cell's homeostasis. In particular, glutathione (GSH) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) contents must be stable. Glutathione provides reducing equivalents for the conversion of hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxides into water and lipid alcohols, protecting the thiol protein group from oxidative damage. The rate-limiting reaction of glutathione biosynthesis is catalyzed by glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL), which is composed of a catalytic subunit (GCLC) and a regulatory subunit (GCLM) . Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate is an important antioxidant component in tissues and can maintain the cell's redox potential by reducing the reducing equivalents of glutathione reductase and thioredoxin.

Ferulic acid, as a phenolic plant component, has strong antioxidant activity and has a great promotion effect on human health. Ferulic acid can significantly increase the content of glutathione and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate in irradiated cells and protect the irradiated endothelial cells. Heme oxygenase is an anti-oxidant enzyme, which can convert heme to bilirubin, and finally to the antioxidant bilirubin. Ferulic acid can well regulate the expression of this enzyme Therefore, it plays a protective role in radiation protection ^[2] .

Ferulic acid antioxidant function

Metabolism is a characteristic of living organisms, and at the same time, living organisms are constantly being activated by reactive oxygen species (molecule or free radicals that are directly or indirectly converted from molecular oxygen and are more active than molecular oxygen), free radicals (also known as free radicals, (Refers to the outer orbit containing unpaired electrons, atoms, atomic groups or molecules in a special state) .These two substances can directly participate in tumor formation or induce carcinogens to cause changes in the DNA of living organisms. Starting, so as to promote the body to produce cancer cells to reduce antioxidant damage is a key link in the prevention and treatment of related diseases. Studies have shown that ferulic acid can destroy free radicals and restore the normal functions of living organisms. Ferulic acid can inhibit the enzymes that produce free radicals in living organisms. On this basis, it can also increase the enzymes that scavenge free radicals. At the same time, ferulic acid can greatly enhance the activities of arousing reductase, glutathione and thiotransferase, and control the proportion of active tyrosinase. Studies by Zhouen et al. Showed that ferulic acid has a significant antioxidant effect and has a good scavenging effect on ammonia peroxide, superoxide radicals, hydroxyl radicals, and nitroperoxide.

Ferulic acid has antibacterial and antiviral functions

Hirabayashi and other studies found that after the macrophages of test mice were infected with influenza virus, a blank control was set without treatment, and those treated with ferulic acid and isoferulic acid were the experimental group. Analysis of the results shows that the production of interferon in the test group decreased rapidly. In recent years, there have been many reports that ferulic acid has a significant inhibitory effect on cold virus (IV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and HIV (HIV) .The research of ferulic acid on inflammatory proteins in the same cell line has been reported. As a result, ferulic acid can drastically reduce the production of the protein. Among them, ferulic acid has an inhibitory effect on HIV, so there is a possibility that ferulic acid will become a future chemotherapeutic agent. It is speculated that the inhibitory mechanism of ferulic acid on the virus is related to its ability to reduce the activity of xanthine oxidase, because such enzymes can generally cause some inflammation to occur. The antibacterial function of ferulic acid is mainly due to its effect on bacteria. N-ethyl transferase has a strong inhibitory effect ^[3] .